102 fRE-ARYAN AND PRE-DRAVIDIAtf
this signification, which we had not the occasion to verify
on the place. The laiika cigar brings us back in an
unexpected manner to Kaliriga with the islands of the
Godavari delta. And in fact the -Gazetter of India,l s. v.
Godavari, fully confirms this evidence: " The land on
which tobacco ia grown consists for the most part of
alluvial islands lying within the banks of the Godavari
river, called lanMs, which are flooded every year.........
Tobacco seems to be grown on any part of the lankds
almost indifferently......... The tobacco of the lankds
would command a good price in European markets."
The word is therefore a current one. But some epigraphic
documents prove that this vocable was equally in use
more in the north, in the valley of the Mahanadi,
A deed of gift, which comes from the state of
Sonpur on the Mahanadi and published by B. C.
Mazumdar (Ep. Ind., XII, 287), is issued by a local
prince related by an unknown lien with the sovereign
of Trikalinga, and which takes title of Pa'scimalankadhi-
pati; Mr. Mazumdar observes about this name that
" the peoples of Sonpur still know by tradition that the
state of Soopur once bare some name as Pascimalanka."
Another document coming from the same state and
published by the same editor (Ep. Ind., XII, 218) is
granted LaiikavarttaJcasamnidhau. The editor proposes
to identify Lankavarttaka with a high land to be found
in the bed of the Mahanadi and which is called Lankes-
vari. The two inscriptions are of very late epoch and
go back only three or four centuries earlier, One cannot
read in Pliny without surprise, the passage already cited,
VI, 18 : Imula in Gange est magna amplitudims genlem
continens unam nomine Idodog&lingam. " There is an
island of large extent in the Ganges, which contains only